The Intersessional Working Group met at UNESCO Headquarters from 22 to 30 April 2003 and considered the articles concerning

1. the nature, composition and functions of the Committee;
2. the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and the list of treasures of the world intangible cultural heritage;
3. finance and the creation of a fund for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage;
4. the form and content of international assistance; and lastly
5. the Convention’s general provisions.

The Preamble, the Annex and the Final Provisions could not be examined, due to lack of time; but more than 26 Articles were considered, and the results of this work were presented in a consolidated text, the Preliminary Draft, which was adopted by consensus and served as a basis for discussion at the third session in June 2003.

The Intersessional Working Group, as an informal body, did not have an official set of working documents created expressly for its meeting. Members were provided with relevant working documents of the previous sessions of the Intergovernmental Meeting of Experts, as follows:

• CLT-2003/CONF.203/3 Rev - Compilation of amendments from Member States concerning the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (English|French)

• CLT-2003/CONF.205/5 - Compilation of general comments from Member States concerning the preliminary draft Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (English|French)

• CLT-2003/CONF.205/6 – Report of the Secretariat on the second session of the Intergovernmental Meeting of Experts, notably Annex I (English)

Unofficial working documents (below) included an informal agenda (English-French), and two documents reflecting the results of the second session of the Intergovernmental Meeting of Experts. Please note that these documents were erroneously assigned code numbers that were later used for different documents during the third session of the Intergovernmental Meeting of Experts, q.v.

• CLT-2003/CONF.206/1 - Semi-consolidated draft of the Convention (English|French)

• CLT-2003/CONF.206/2 - Compilation of amendments from Member States submitted during the second session of the Intergovernmental Meeting of Experts on the Preliminary-Draft Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (English|French)

The meeting of the working group resulted in a report from its Rapporteur, Mr Constantin Economides, which later served as a working document of the third session of the Intergovernmental Meeting of Experts, and which includes a list of participants:

• CLT-2003/CONF.206/3 (English)